New Beginnings Take Two
by Lazy Chick
Summary: Hadley, who was extremely curious about what Kai was saying asked, "What did he say?" "Saying stuff like he doesn't like being bossed around, but in very nasty words." Kai/OC, Tala/OC, etc. Warning: OC's ahoy
1. New School

Title: New Beginnings Take Two

Author: Lazy Chick -_- (I want a new name…)

Genre: Romance/General

Rating: T

Summary: Nadia looked at her brother sitting next to her. His fingers were stained a red-pink colour, compliments of the clouds he was eating. Nadia frowned some more. How come he got the lollies and she got the chips?

A/N: A remake of the original New Beginnings I wrote in year 8 for homework. In my opinion this version is better. Different OC's (they are definitely less marysue-ish) and I like these characters better too. I actually have some clue what is going on and I'm pretty sure that nothing in this chapter happened for no reason.

You might find that some words are spelt wrong in your opinion, but I'm Australian and some words are spelled differently in America.

Chapter 1: A New School

Nadia sat in one of the chairs outside of the principal's office frowning while eating a packet of chips. She could have sworn the packets used to be bigger and had more chips in them. _This is just a rip off,_ she thought. Nadia looked at her brother sitting next to her. His fingers were stained a red-pink colour, compliments of the clouds he was eating. Nadia frowned some more. How come he got the lollies and she got the chips? He was staring out the window to his left, so Nadia took the opportunity to try to discretely smuggle one of the lollies out of the bag and into her mouth. Naturally, it didn't work. As soon as her hand started to creep toward the bag, the redhead switched the bag from his right hand to his left hand and held it of reach. The brunette frowned, then pouted, then settled back in her seat when she finally accepted the fact that her brother wouldn't share with her, but not before she childishly crossed her arms across her chest and pointedly ignored her older brother.

Tala looked at his other half sitting to his right with an amused look on his face. She could be so childish when she didn't get what she wanted, even if it was just one lolly. He contemplated giving her one. The main reason he denied her of one was just to annoy her. If she had asked him he might have actually given her one. She was ignoring him, but every now and then she would glance his way. Tala smirked when an idea formed in his mind. Nadia frowned with a confused look on her face. She didn't know what he was planning but odds are she wasn't going to like it. Her suspicions were confirmed when he quickly grabbed the packet of chips out of her hands. Nadia gaped at him. Tala gave her a mocking look in return and handed her the packet of clouds. That made Nadia perk up immediately and she started to dig into the lolly packet.

"Tala and Nadia, the principal will see you now," the very traditional looking secretary told the twins. In Tala's opinion, the secretary was very boring. He got to that conclusion by the way she spoke, dressed and acted in general. He sighed and started towards the door indicated but stopped when he realised the shorter girl wasn't following him. Looking behind him, he saw his sister looking down at her food and eating happily. She hadn't even realised someone was talking to her. Going back to the chair, Tala grabbed his sister by the arm and physically dragged his sister into the principal's office.

"Welcome to Middleton High School Miss Valkov, Mr Valkov," the principal said after the twins closed the door. "My name is Mr Dickinson." Mr Dickinson started to give them the 'welcome to Middleton High' speech but stopped when he noticed the twins had zoned out. "Mr and Miss Valkov, I would appreciate you listening to me when I speak to you." He managed to get their attention again but sighed when he saw the bored look on their faces. "Anyway," the principal decided to skip to the important part of the conversation, "here are your timetables, school map and I believe you already have your P.E uniforms. Here are late notes to give to your teachers so you won't get into trouble for being late to first period. Are there any questions you two wish to ask before you go?" He gestured to the door after the twins shook their heads no. "You may now leave to go to class. Oh, and no eating in class."

Walking out of the office Nadia looked between her lollies and her late note. She didn't want to get in trouble right away by being any later then the note allows her to be, but at the same time she didn't want to stop eating her lollies either. Sighing Nadia looked at her timetable and decided what she would do about her lollies when the time comes. Grabbing her brother's timetable, she gave a happy grin when she noticed they were in the same class but was pulled in the other direction by Tala who mumbled something about going in the wrong direction while looking down at his school map. Nadia noticing the missing packet of chips he was eating a couple minutes earlier and deduced he must have emptied the packet of its contents and threw the rubbish in the bin.

Leading his sister down the hall, up two flights of stairs, going through various hallways with complicated layouts, Tala deduced this schools architect must have been high, drunk or a combination of the both when he made the floor plan of this building. Stopping suddenly in front of the door, he caught Nadia off guard which caused her to crash into him as she was walking right behind him. The collision caught Tala off guard which caused him to fall on the ground underneath his sister. They made a bit of noise doing this which caused the teacher on the other side of the door to come outside to see what all the commotion was about. Seeing the two teens on the floor made her raise her eyebrows and she was about to make a comment about the proper conduct at school is when Nadia suddenly looked up, raise her hand, waved and said a simple "hi." After many tries of trying to get off her brother she finally succeeded and showed the late note to the teacher while hiding the lollies behind her back and praying the teacher didn't notice.

The teacher nodded and gestured for the twins to come in but not before Tala cleared his throat so his sister would notice him and help him up. "You're heavier then you look," Tala told her once he was on his feet once again and rubbed his stomach where Nadia had accidently elbowed him. Nadia was about to comeback with a rather colourful remark before she remembered where she was. So instead she just frowned and followed the teacher.

Walking into the room Tala was paying more attention looking around the classroom then he was walking which caused him to bump into his sister which in turn made her bump into the teacher which created a domino effect leaving all three of them on the floor. You could hear some laughs coming from the students at the accidental show. Picking themselves off the floor for a second time Nadia curtsied while Tala bowed, leaving an angry teacher on the floor. "How's the weather down there?" Tala asked the teacher amused before he raised his eyebrows at Nadia who had a sad look on her face. Keeping her eyes on the floor she bent down on the floor and picked one of the clouds that were splattered all over the floor. "They deserved a better fate then this," she said to no one in particular, not expecting a reply.

Finally off the floor, the teacher thought about yelling at them but decided against it because the only thing they did wrong was that the redhead wasn't paying much attention to where he was going, which was probably how they ended up on the floor the first time. "Alright class," the teacher started trying to regain full control of the class, "we have two new students in our class. Please welcome Tala and Nadia Valkov." The teacher turned to the twins. "Feel free to sit wherever you want."

Upon noticing a free seat Tala started to make his way over but stopped and raised an eyebrow at the brunette following him. It startled him to see that is wasn't Nadia, but an even smaller girl. She smiled sweetly at him before slipping past him and sat down in the seat he was aiming for. Puzzled, he looked around the room, his eyes falling on the younger Valkov who was heading for another seat and sat down. Going over to her, he picked her up off the seat, took her place and pulled her down on his lap leaving a confused Nadia. If asked what they were doing Tala already had the perfect reply.

Just as predicted, the teacher asked what they were doing. Nadia, who was still confused, didn't know how to respond but luckily for her, the redhead did. "You told us we could sit wherever we wanted." Nadia, finally catching what was going on, got off her brother, looked around the room for another place to sit but didn't know what to do when she saw that there were no more seats, with the exception of the teachers chair of course. Thinking that unless she wanted to sit on her brothers' lap for the rest of the lesson she had to take the teachers chair, so she did just that. And then she got in trouble because of it. "But there are no other chairs," Nadia responded.

The teacher, not liking the excuse, even though she knew it was true responded, "Then sit on the floor."

"But I'm in a skirt," Nadia protested.

"Then sit in a way that no one will see up your skirt."

So for the rest of the lesson Nadia sat on the floor trying to pay attention to the teacher, which is easier said than done when you're trying to make sure no one can see up your skirt.

After the bell rang signalling the end of the lesson, Nadia made sure she was the last one up and out the door as she didn't want anyone seeing her awkwardly get up so no one could see her underwear. Tala, who was standing behind her, watched in amusement until she got up and walked with her out the door.

"Um Tala? Could you walk me to my next class? I don't understand this school map."

"Fine, what room are you in?"

"38"

Looking at his map, Tala frowned. Room 38 was in the opposite direction of his room. After dropping his sister off at her maths class, Tala made his way over to his geography class. Stepping into his class, the teacher nodded at him and gestured him to sit down. Tala sighed happily when he noticed that there was more than one chair available.

Kai was sitting in his maths class bored. He recognised the girl sitting in front of him as the new girl in his English class from the period before. From the looks of things she didn't know what she was doing, since she kept looking to the bored and then down at her math book where she had only copied what the teacher had written down on the board.

Nadia, feeling someone watching her, looked up and locked eyes with the bluenette watching her, then went back trying to figure out the confusing maths problem in front of her. Maths was definitely not her subject. Her brother was smarter at the general stuff while she did well at the artistic stuff. At this rate she would fail maths for sure.

Next period, Tala found his sister waiting at the locked door for their early childhood studies class. She wasn't the only one waiting though. About five other kids were waiting behind Nadia with unhappy looks on their faces. Looking through the window on the door, Tala saw that most of the class was already in there. Confused, Tala tried to open the door to make sure it was locked and that everyone wasn't just waiting outside like idiots. It was indeed locked.

Wanting to get to recess and annoyed that their early childhood studies teacher had called a meeting to be held at the beginning of recess, Hadley looked around the classroom with a bored look on her face. At the moment she saw several pissed off looking teens, including the two new kids, waiting outside the classroom annoyed that the students had locked them out. Unfortunately, one of the students that were locked out (because Johnny had locked the door behind him) was Hayden. When she learns that the reason that she couldn't get in the room was because of Johnny, things might get ugly. Tyson, Brooklyn and Kai don't exactly look happy to be stuck out there either.

"Hey Johnny, what are you going to do when Hayden finds out you're the one that locked them out?" Mystel asked the redhead.

Johnny raised his eyebrows. "What are you talking about Mystel? Hayden's in here." Johnny was about to gesture to the spot where Hayden usually sits but visibly paled when she wasn't there. Frantically looking around the room and hoping Hayden was inside, he paled even more when he couldn't locate the girl with the dark blue-gray hair. "If she asks why the door was locked, please don't tell her it was me who locked it," he pleaded to everyone in the room.

"I don't know," Mystel started, "Anna's out there as well and you know how I hate to lie to my girlfriend. If Anna's asks who did it I will tell her the truth, and since Anna and Hayden are friends Hayden is likely to find out. Sucks to be you dude."

Hadley looked at the door when she heard keys jiggling in the door and inwardly smirked. She couldn't wait when Hayden found out what Johnny did. Her day had been boring thus far and watching Johnny get his butt kicked by her anger issued friend would brighten her day. You could tell what was on the blue eyed girls mind just by watching her walk through the door. Someone was going to get it big time. But probably not until after the meeting was over.

"Ok welcome to the early childhood studies meeting. I know we have a class last period but I'm leaving school early which means I won't be here and I have something important to give you guys." Mrs Finch, the early childhood studies teacher began. "Today I am giving you an assignment that is to be carried out over the next two weeks. It will be a paired assignment. I will pick the pairs and there will be no swapping under any circumstances, understood," Finch swept her gaze over the class slowly, lingering on some students longer than others. "And the pairs are as follows: Tyson Kinomiya and Hilary, Max Tate and Skyler, Nadia Valkov and Kai Hiwatari, Tala Valkov and Hadley, Johnny McGregor and Hayden Hiwatari, Ozuma and Anna, Mystel and Salima, Brooklyn Kingston and Mariah Wong, Ray Kon and Willow, Kane Yamashita and Sophia, Michael Parker and Piper…" the teacher continued to read the list out to the rest of the class. "Here is a copy of your assignment," she handed over a sheet of papers to Tala and motioned him to take one and pass them along. "Okay, since you won't have a teacher for last period, you are allowed to do whatever you want, as long as you stay in school and abide by the rules. Have a good recess, you are dismissed."

As soon as Mrs Finch left the room, Hayden whirled on the class. "Which one of you locked the door on us?" Hayden yelled and gestured to the people she was stuck outside with to emphasis the 'us' part. "Doesn't anyone have the guts to admit it?" She turned to Hadley. "Hadley, are you going to tell me who's responsible?"

Hadley looked up and grinned at her friend. "Sorry Hayden, I don't rat out my friends." Hayden knowingly gave her a hint with the friend comment.

Anna, one of the other girls that was locked outside, turned to her blonde haired boyfriend. "Hey Mystel, any idea who locked the door?" Her emerald eyes locked onto Mystel's cyan blue eyes.

"Sure, I'll give you a hint. His name starts with Johnny and ends with McGregor."

"McGregor," Hayden yelled and started to take slow, deliberate steps toward the redhead. When she got to him she grabbed the front of his shirt and started shaking him. "What the hell were you thinking locking us all out there? Do you think we like spending our recess locked out of a classroom? It's enough that we have to spend some of our precious recess time in a meeting but you decided to make it worse by locking us out. What kind of person are you?" Hayden stopped shaking Johnny and let go but just when Johnny thought he was safe Hayden picked up a chair and was about to hit him over the head with it but stopped short when someone pulled the chair from her hands. Whirling around, she prepared to tell off the holder of the chair, until she came face to face with an unfamiliar face. A very cute unfamiliar face. No scratch that, he was also stuck outside with her. He's one of the new students. She vaguely remembered seeing his face when he was introduced in her English class.

"You should probably stop before you kill him. I didn't read all the school rules, but even if it doesn't say anything about killing a fellow student, I'm sure the school highly recommends against it." Tala told the dark blue eyed girl. Hayden just nodded with a blush on her face.

"How'd he manage that? It's near impossible to stop Hayden when she plans a killing spree." Johnny asked Ray.

Ray just laughed. "I think she's attracted to the new guy."

Hadley, probably the only one in the room actually reading the assignment, tried to remember the other pairings. When she remembered what she wanted she gestured for Kai to come to her. Upon seeing Hadley trying to get his attention, Kai raised his eyebrows and reluctantly walked over to the gold eyed blonde. After speaking to Kai quietly, well she talked, Kai just nodded and sighed, Hadley called Nadia over to her.

"Umm hi, what's up?" the green eyed brunette asked the blonde.

"I'm planning to start the assignment after school. When the bell rings for home time you and your brother meet Kai and I at the front gates." Hadley told Nadia.

Nadia blinked at the blondes bossy tone. She didn't know what to say so she just nodded.

Third period Nadia had photography. It took her a while to figure out which of the outer buildings was the art building but she somehow managed to make it on time. Sitting on one of the seats, the teen waited for class to begin. Just before class started, two students walked in the room and one sat next to her while the other took the empty seat across from her. She vaguely recognised them from the meeting at recess, among her earlier classes. She remembered that the blonde next to her name is Mystel and the redhead across from her was the guy Tala saved from the hot headed bluey grey haired girl. Johnny she thought his name was. She also remembered him from her English class.

"Okay class," the teacher said as she walked in, "I would like you to spend this period working on your assignment." She pretty much dismissed the class and she started doing her own work.

Seeing the blank look on Nadia's face, Johnny thought he should help the new girl out a bit. "Go ask the teacher for the assignment. Tell her you're new and need the basic equipment too." Nadia nodded and followed his instructions.

Mystel raised his eyebrows at the redhead. "Since when do you help out new kids?"

"I don't. I'm making an exception because her brother saved me from Hayden."

At the front of the room Nadia had been given a copy of the assignment, a camera and the permission to use the dark room if needed. Walking back to her seat she read through the assignment. It was a yearlong assignment where she had to make a portfolio of photos. She can Photoshop them in any way she wants, use any camera settings she wants and doesn't necessarily have to use the schools camera. She is allowed to use her own one. She doesn't have to stay in the classroom to take pictures and can be of anything she wants as long as it doesn't involve nudity in any way, shape or form. And if she has any questions she is allowed to ask the teacher anytime she is free.

Sitting back down at her desk, she put the assignment sheet into her bag and started to fool around with the camera in her hand. Not knowing what she should take photos of, she looked up when she heard typing. Seeing Johnny typing on his laptop, Nadia suddenly took a photo of him. Startled after seeing a flash in his eyes, he was about to question the brunette but before he could she started talking. "Sorry about that, I'm not sure what I should take photos of."

"Well could you be confused in a different direction?" Johnny questioned irritated.

Nadia pouted, "party pooper." Johnny just glared. Turning to her right, she saw the blonde was also on his laptop and took a photo of him. "You'll be my model won't you…I'm sorry what was your name again?" she asked sheepishly.

"I'm Mystel. And sure. If you need a model, you could always come to me." He smiled. Nadia resisted the urge to hug him. Nadia spent the rest of the lesson watching Mystel fool around on Photoshop.

*****  
Walking around the quad, Kane wondered where he might find his little brunette girlfriend. As she was a year younger, he didn't have any classes with her and because that overly long class meeting at recess, he hadn't had a chance to see her since that morning. The problem was he didn't know where to go as he wasn't sure what class she just had. Instead of running into his tiny tot girlfriend he ran into Mariah, who was looking for her boyfriend. They both sighed when the other didn't know where their boyfriend/girlfriend was and instead headed over to where their group usually hung out silently hoping to find their loved one there.

Upon arriving, they saw that Skylar was in the middle of have a bitch fight with Anna, an unlikely suspect. Kane raised his eyebrow at Mystel, silently asking what his docile girlfriend was fighting about. Mystel just shrugged his shoulders and gestured for him to come over. "So what are those two fighting about? Skylar gets in lots of bitch fights but Anna generally just sits with the rest of us watching." The blunette asks the blonde.

Mystel shrugged, "I don't know, they came here together and they were already fighting. They just had class together so maybe something happened."

Kane nodded. "Have you seen Reagan anywhere?" Mystel just shook his head.

Upon hearing the younger girls name Skylar looked up from where she was having her argument with the green haired girl. "I saw Reagan." Her name was all that was needed to get the blunettes attention. "She was on her way to detention. She was having some big argument with one of the teachers."

"So that explains where Reagan is but where is everyone else?" Brooklyn asked as he can came over and he wrapped his arms around his girlfriend's waist. Skylar gave him a peck on the lips in greeting.

On the other side of the quad Nadia was walking with her brother looking for a place to sit when she bumped into Hayden. Just like at recess she was in a bad mood but perked up immediately when she spotted Tala. Thinking you couldn't get one without the other; Hayden invited both of the twins to hang out with her and her friends. Not having anyone else to hang out with, Tala accepted the offer and was dragged over to Hayden's friends while Nadia followed behind them watching in amusement.

When they arrived Hayden told her group who they were and told the twins that they would learn everyone's names over time. Hayden raised her eyebrows at Anna and Skylar but didn't question it. From what Tala could decipher the girls were having a simple argument about baking.

"Would you two stop acting so childish?" Ian asked from where he was sitting.

Hayden raised her eyebrows. "As opposed to you, the midget prankster?"

"It's not childish, baking is serious business," Nadia commented, "It can be very difficult."

"You really believe that baking is hard?" The midget Russian asked.

"Coming from the person who's failing cooking," Hayden piped up from where she sat down.

"You're one to talk. We're in the same group."

"I never said I was a good cook. I was just saying how bad of a cook you are."

Kai, who was lying down on the hill with his eyes closed, suddenly sat up and glared at his friends (which scared Skyler halve to death since she thought he was asleep). All he wanted to do that lunch time was lay down and relax in the peace and quiet of the day but that seemed impossible since the other insisted on talking; especially Anna and Skyler who were having an argument. And to make things worse, his loving older sister Hayden decided to bring the two new kids over. When he thought things couldn't get any worse, he noticed Brittany, his younger sister walking over. Lucky for him though, instead of coming over to him, she was making a beeline for Hayden. He watched his sister's talk for a minute before Hayden got a confused look on her face and shook her head. After one more comment from his older sister, his younger sister started to make a move towards him.

"Hey Kai, have you seen Reagan?" The small blunette asked.

"She's in detention," Kai replied. He frowned, thinking that Hayden knew that and could quite easily have told Brittany before he remembered that Hayden wasn't here when Skylar made that remark. "Why, do you need her for something?"

"Umm, oops," Brittany said as though she had done something wrong. "I kind of pulled a prank and Reagan was around when it happened. I wanted to ask her not to tell anybody about it but I guess someone must have seen her in the area and now the teachers are blaming her for it."

Kai raised his eyebrows, "what did you do?"

"I started to throw water balloons at him at recess after he came over to me after the meeting. He ate the rest of my recess and I know it wasn't a very good prank but it was the best I could do at a moment's notice. So don't be surprised if you see a wet Tyson walking around."

If any of my friends deserve to pranked, Tyson is the one, Kai thought to himself.

The bell rang and Brittany had to go to last period. Since everybody else had early childhood studies they just stayed where they were until the end of school.

When the bell rang to indicate the end of school, Kai, Tala and Nadia headed for the front gate where they were meant to meet up with Hadley. "We've you been? I haven't seen you since recess," Kai asked the blonde when they reached her.

The golden eyed girl shrugged, "in the library doing my homework."

"Something Nadia wouldn't know the meaning of." Tala commented.

"That's not true; I always do my homework, for about half of my subjects anyways."

Tala turned to Hadley. "It seems you're the boss out of all of us, what do you want us to do?"

"Did any of you even read the assignment sheet?" Hadley sighed when she didn't get any conformation. "So basically, we have to interview at least five single mums or dads ask them what it's like to raise a kid on their own and then write an essay on it. The catch is they have to be strangers. It is also due next week."

"We don't have much time to do it." Nadia noted.

"Which is why we're the assignment starting today. The reason I decided to make us work as a group is because a) you two just moved here and don't know much about this town and b) since you're twins I assume you work well together."

"Makes sense."

"Kai doesn't mind you bossing him around?"

"Kai's my bitch, so of course he doesn't mind." Kai rolled his eyes at the blonde. The only reason he allows her to get away with as much stuff as she does is because she's Hayden's best friend and his sister would kill him if he did anything to hurt Hadley.

"So what are we doing?"

"We are going to the mall."

"Going to the mall? What are we doing, going up to random strangers and ask them if they're single parents?" asked Nadia.

"Well that's the basic idea. Do you two have a ride?"

"I have a car but I don't know where the mall is," answered Tala.

Hope you liked the first chapter

I would like to say that Kai and Hayden are brother and sister, they are in the same grade BUT they are NOT twins. Hayden is older than Kai by 11 months but they were born in the same year. Hayden was born in February and Kai was born in December (I know that in the show he was born in August but his birthday has to be at the end of the year in order for the siblings to be born in the same year). Kai also has a younger sister, Brittany, who is three years younger than him. Upon saying that, Tala and Nadia ARE twins, Tala being the older twin by four minutes. Oh and Nadia wears glasses.

P.S. I will be keeping the original New Beginnings up until further notice.

Later everyone  
Love Lazy Chick


	2. The Mall

Title: New Beginnings Take Two

Author: Lazy Chick -_- (I want a new name…)

Genre: Romance/General

Rating: T

Summary: Hadley, who was extremely curious about what Kai was saying asked, "What did he say?" "Saying stuff like he doesn't like being bossed around, but in very nasty words." Kai/OC, Tala/OC, etc. Warning: OC's ahoy

A/N: A remake of the original New Beginnings I wrote in year 8 for homework. In my opinion this version is better. Different OC's (they are definitely less marysue-ish) and I like these characters better too. I actually have some clue what is going on and I'm pretty sure that nothing in this chapter happened for no reason.

You might find that some words are spelt wrong in your opinion, but I'm Australian and some words are spelled differently in America.

Chapter 1: The Mall

"I have a car but I don't know where the mall is," answered Tala.

"Well I'm riding with Kai so you can follow us," suggested Hadley and she started towards Kai, who had already begun the journey to his car so he didn't have to be part of a conversation, the wind sending her blonde hair flying everywhere, the only reason she could probably still see was because the red ribbons were holding her long hair keeping them into their ponytails.

"What time do you think we'll be home? I'll have to call mum before she has a heart attack if we were to come home late." The redhead asked his sister. Nadia looked thoughtful for a second and was about to shrug her shoulders in an 'I don't know' manner when Hadley called out over her shoulder: "just tell them you're working on an assignment with some friends and will have dinner with them after woods."

Nadia looked at Tala with raised eyebrows. "She thinks of everything, doesn't she? You're lucky to be partnered up with a smart person." She told Tala and started to head towards Tala's jeep, but wasn't as lucky as Hadley since her brown hair was let loose and flying everywhere and for some reason, unlike Hadley, her black pleated skirt was flying all over the place causing Nadia to use her hands to keep her skirt down.

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When they arrived at the mall and the boys had parked their cars, Hadley started to dictate orders again. "Ok, change of plans. On the way over I was thinking things through and I think it would be better if I worked with Nadia and Kai worked with Tala. We'll make things a bit more fun and interesting. It will be a race. Girls against boys. The first group to have interviewed ten single parents wins. I made it ten so we can make sure that both groups can have at least five people to write their essay on. In case that made no sense basically Tala and I won't end up writing about the same people as Kai and Nadia. When we're done we'll meet at the fountain in the middle of the food court. Everyone understand?"

"Sounds a bit confusing but you paired me up with you so I guess I will figure it out along the way. It's the boys I'm worried about."

Tala looked thoughtful, "I somewhat get it but I'll be counting on Kai for directions."

"What about you Kai? Everything understood?" Kai gave a tiny nod and left, muttering under his breath in Russian. Tala raised his eyebrows and turned to leave after Kai, who was still muttering about something in Russian.

"Does he do that often? Go off on his own and speaking Russian?"

"All the time. He's not a people person in the slightest."

"I wonder if Tala will tell him we're half Russian. He wasn't exactly saying nice things when he left," the brunette winced.

Hadley, who was extremely curious about what Kai was saying asked, "What did he say?"

"Saying stuff like he doesn't like being bossed around, but in very nasty words."

Hadley didn't look surprised. "I've always wondered what Kai says when he speaks Russian. Same goes for Hayden and Brittany. I'm glad I met you; now I have a translator."

Nadia looked slightly annoyed. "I'm not here to be used," she said following Hadley into the shopping complex.

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With the boys

"You need to learn how to say nicer things. Those were some very bad things you were saying about Hadley," Tala said after he caught up with the blunette and was walking with his hands laced behind his head.

Kai looked surprised, "you understood that?"

"Yeah, I'm half Russian, half Australian. I speak both languages fluently. Nadia can too so I wouldn't be surprised if she told Hadley what you said about her."

"It's not Hadley I'm worried about. It's Hayden, they're best friends and I wouldn't be surprised if Hayden tried to kill me if I hurt Hadley's feelings. She has a bit of an anger issue as you saw earlier."

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With the girls

"Are we really going to go up to random strangers and start asking them about their personal lives? That seems a bit invasive." Nadia adjusted her glasses as her and Hadley walked past shop after shop and secretly hoped that Hadley would want to screw the assignment so they could go in the shop they just walked past.

"That was the plan, until you told me what Kai said about me. So now we should just relax and let the boys do the work."

"And what will we do in the meantime? We can't exactly leave; we're meeting up with them in a few hours. And besides, the boys are our rides. We're stuck here without them."

Hadley looked thoughtful for a minute. "How do you feel about pranking them?" she asked after a few minutes of thinking.

Nadia grinned, "I like the way you think. But we have to be a bit lighter on Tala. I do have to live with him after all."

"What should we do to them first?"

Nadia smirked, "I have an idea. But we have to go to Woolworths, The Reject Shop and we'll also need some walkie talkies. Not the best prank but it's hard to think of one on short notice with hundreds of innocent bystanders around."

"And as time goes on we can think up some other things as well."

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With the boys

_Kai is a fast walker,_ Tala observed after he had fallen behind him. He really wished he didn't have to do this assignment, especially with Mr Grouch as his partner. Looking around, he tried to locate a kind of shop only women tended to enter. Up ahead he saw a candle shop. _Bingo._

When they got close to the shop, Tala dragged a half startled, half annoyed Kai into the candle shop. The shopkeeper looked at them carefully. After all, it wasn't everyday two teenage boys entered a candle shop alone. Tala hit the jackpot. There were many women with children hanging out in here.

Kai looked around and then at Tala. He had to admit that a candle shop was a good place to start. But what Kai wanted to know was what Tala's next move was. The redhead was definitely in deep thought. But so was the shopkeeper. Something inside Kai made him feel like they should make there move soon, lest the shopkeeper kick them out first. _Listen to me_, Kai thought, _it sounds like we're here to rob the place_. Kai looked from Tala, to the shopkeeper, and then the customers. It seemed like Tala wasn't planning on thinking up a move anytime soon so it was up to Kai.

Kai walked up to the closest mother he saw and tapped her on the shoulder. When she gave him her attention he said, "See that kid with the red hair," he gestured to where Tala was standing, "he told me he wanted to ask you something."

Tala, who watched the whole interaction, glared at the blunette. He was hoping since Kai went up to the woman he would do the interview. The redhead reluctantly walked up to Kai and the woman. "Hi, we have an assignment in our early childhood studies to do. We were wondering if you could give us some of your time to answer some of our questions…" Tala and Kai started to conduct the interview.

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With the girls

"Walkie talkies are too expansive so we'll have to use our phones instead," Hadley was telling Nadia after they had purchased the rest of their gear. They were currently on their way to one of the shopping centres many bathrooms.

Nadia pouted but agreed. "How do we intend on finding the boys once we're ready?" The brunette voiced the one detail that eluded her.

"We'll figure that out soon."

A few minutes later and the two teens had arrived at the bathroom and they made a beeline for the sink. Pulling out their purchases they proceeded with the preparations. They tipped all the water balloons onto the sink and started filling them with water. But before they tied them they added food colouring. Once they were done they carefully put the balloons in a bag and left the bathroom.

"Now back with the earlier question concerning their location."

"We could always text them asking them where ahh," Hadley yelped when Nadia pulled her arm. The blonde watched the motioning brunette in confusion and went to look in the general direction where the brunette was gesturing. Hadley smirked when she saw it. Talk about good luck. Turning back to Nadia she started to act as commander. "Good work soldier. Now it looks like we've got a good vantage point – they're on a lower level. But we have to be careful with our aim. There is lots of innocent bystanders around."

Nadia raised her eyebrows at Hadley. "One: this isn't my first prank and two: what's with the sudden commando act? Do you have a split personality or something?"

Hadley shook her head. "I just like being in charge." She took a water balloon out of the bag, a nice red one that matched Tala's red hair, and carefully aimed it at the redhead, being careful not to hit anyone else in the process, with the exception of Kai of course. _Ready, aim and fire._

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With the boys

Tala jumped when he felt something hit his face. A water balloon? Her looked in the direction it came from and frowned. _What the hell just happened?_

Kai frowned. "The water's red," he said out loud. Since Kai was giving Tala all his attention, he didn't notice the dark blue projectile flying straight to his face.

"The water on you is dark blue." Tala stated the obvious. "But who would through water balloons at us?" The boys looked in the general direction of where the balloons came from and came up blind. Just when they were about to give up, Kai saw a glimpse of a bag on the floor with a blonde quickly handing the bag to someone behind a big pot plant. _The girls,_ Kai thought.

"It's Hadley and your sister. I just caught a quick glimpse of them."

Tala didn't look surprised. His sister was a part-time prankster so dealing with her pranks was a habit of his. "Let's act like we didn't notice them and try cornering them discreetly. Maybe even try to steal the water balloons from them and attack them."

Kai shrugged. Couldn't hurt.

Just then Tala's phone went off. The ID said Shannon. _Shit._

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With the girls

Hadley watched Nadia send a message to her brother and frowned. That wasn't the same phone she had been using earlier. And that was an odd kind of message to send, especially to her brother. "What's with the second phone and the odd message."

Putting the phone away Nadia looked up at the frowning golden eyed blonde. "I've been pranking my brother for almost a year now. A friend of mine had gotten a new phone and gave me her old one because mine was broken. Not long after I got a new phone. I didn't want this pone to go to waste so I bought a new sim car for it so it would have an unknown number and started sending prank messages to people. I've had a lot of fun doing it to Tala. It's a good way to relieve boredom. Anyway," Nadia switched the topic back to the original one, "do you think they saw us?"

"By their confused faces I'm saying no but I think we should be more careful."

"What's in that direction?" Nadia pointed in the direction that the boys had started to walk off in. "They're not looking this way anymore so can I move? This pot plant is kind of small."

"Yes you can move now." Hadley frowned, not entirely remembering what was in that direction. "I haven't been to this particular shopping centre in a while so I'm not really sure. I know the escalator is over there though." Hadley broke off and her eyes widened. "A one way escalator that leads to this floor. They might be heading in this direction"

"But you said they didn't see us. And what kind of shopping centre has a one way escalator? That doesn't make much sense."

"It doesn't matter right now. Let's get out of here." They picked up their bags and started to walk away calmly but on the inside they were panicking.

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With the boys

From the corner of his eye Kai could see his redheaded companion silently panicking. He had been like that ever since his phone went off. He hadn't even looked at the message, just saw the name and started freaking out. He was curious to know what was going on but he didn't care enough to ask.

They were heading to the nearest escalator, which conveniently took them to the level the girls were on. Kai wondered why they were doing this. He didn't know what Nadia was like but Hadley generally puts school work before practical jokes. Kai winced, _maybe Nadia translated what he said and this was payback. Hayden and Hadley were best friends; maybe Hayden's anger issues had rubbed off on the blonde._

After they arrived on the third floor, the boys set out on their quest to find the girls.

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Nadia was confused. She was standing in a shop near the escalator watching the boys. How did she end up closer to the boys when they were trying to get away from them? When they were trying to walk away from the boys they had gotten stuck in a mob. She must have gotten pushed back. To make things worse in all the confusion she had lost Hadley.

Feeling a tap on her shoulder she turned around hoping it was Hadley. No such luck. It was the shopkeeper. She wanted Nadia out of there unless she was planning to buy something. Smiling sheepishly, Nadia reluctantly made her way out of the shop, being careful not to be noticed by the boys.

Breathing a sigh of relief when she saw Tala walk into a shop, Nadia tried to take the opportunity to take the escalator to the lower floor, then froze when she remembered it was a one way escalator. Just when she was about to move someone bumped into her, effectively knocking her glasses off her face. Almost blind without them, Nadia dropped to the floor sticking her hands in every direction hoping nobody stepped on them – or her.

Giggling happily when she found them, she put them on and went to reach for her bag of water balloons but blinked when she saw it was gone. _What the hell?_ She heard someone clear his throat next to her and turned to see Kai standing there with her bag of water balloons. _Shit._

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Tala walked out of the shop looking for the bluenette and frowned when he couldn't see him. It seemed Kai was lost in action. He was about to go searching for him when another water balloon hit him in the face. His fast reflexes kicked in this time and he saw Hadley with a bag of water balloons laughing and backing away from him before going in an all-out sprint. Tala, forgetting about the missing Kai and not even noticing that his sister wasn't with Hadley, sprinted off after the blonde.

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Kai was at the moment standing over the brunette with a green water balloon in his hand. He thought since the girls were matching the colours with their hair, he would do the same with Nadia, but since there were no brown balloons he used green to match her eyes. If Nadia had lost her glasses then he wouldn't have been able to steal the water balloons. He had never been happier for someone not to have 20/20 vision.

Nadia laughed sheepishly, "Have mercy?"

Kai shook his head. "Not going to happen." He picked up a water balloon, bent down to the floor so he was eye level with her and before Nadia had a chance to get away, he smashed the water balloon in her face.

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Hadley was trying to hide from Tala. Problem was there weren't many places to hide, unless she went into a shop, and the shopkeepers generally didn't like that and tell people to get lost unless they want to buy something. The only advantage she had was she knew the lay of the land. But her memory was a bit foggy with that. This wasn't the shopping centre her and her friends usually went to, because this is the one where all the people they don't like tend to shop. But it's the closest one to her house, so she told Kai to drive to this one.

Right now she was walking with the crowd on one side of the walkway, and Tala was on the other side of the walkway going against the crowd, obviously looking for her. If he found her she was screwed.

He started to look in her direction so she upped her pace a little, but not enough to draw any attention to herself. She looked at him again and saw he was looking directly at her. She wondered how he spotted her in the crowd so quickly and then she remembered she was wearing her school uniform. A black and yellow uniform kind of stuck out in a crowd.

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Nadia squealed as cold water was splattered in her face. She glared at the blunette who had already picked up another water balloon and before he had a chance to pop it on her, she tackled him and grabbed a water balloon from the bag quickly and popped it in his face. They continued hitting each other with water balloon for a few minutes, generally having to tackle the other to get them to stay still. All this understandably gathered unwanted attention from the crowd and security was even called. Right before Kai was able to hit Nadia with the last water balloon, a voice above them cleared his throat. They looked up and a couple security guards looking down at them.

"Uh, hello," Nadia tried to wave from her spot under Kai. Generally having someone on top of you, pinning you down would be considered a comprising position, but looking at the water balloon in Kai's hand, that kind of contradicted that thought.

"Would you two please come with us?"

"To where exactly?"

"Outside."

"Why?" Nadia played dumb. Well Kai hoped she was playing dumb, because he really didn't want to be stuck with a stupid partner.

"Why do you think?"

"You're kicking us out? Why me, he's the one on top of me with a water balloon in his hand."

"But he's wet too, which means you were hitting him with balloon as well."

"Did it ever occur to you that he might have set me up? Hit himself with some so in a situation like this he wouldn't have to take all the blame?" She turned to Kai. "Would you please get off me?" He complied but not before he hit her with the last water balloon, hitting her smack in the face, leaving Nadia complaining about having trouble seeing through her glasses. She turned back to security. "See what he did to me?"

"You started it," the bluenette muttered.

"Very mature Kai."

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Tala was following a slightly scared Hadley, with a water balloon in his hand. She had dropped the bag by accident when she was backing away and before she could get it back, Tala had already grabbed it. He was about to hit her when Hadley blinked and looked behind him.

"Isn't that Kai and Nadia?"

Tala thought it was just a distraction but looked behind anyway and was surprised to see that the blonde was telling the truth. On the other side of the walkway was a soaking wet, and rather colourful because of the food colouring, Kai and Nadia being escorted by two security guards.

"Maybe we should go with them." Hadley offered.

Tala agreed and followed after them, making sure to keep the water balloons out of Hadley's reach.

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Nadia was sitting on a fountain outside shivering. Kai had walked off a few minutes earlier, trying to call Hadley to tell her about their predicament, but needed better reception. So now she was stuck alone in a foreign place freezing her butt off because of the cool air mixed with her wet clothes.

"The reception over there is even worse," Kai said coming back. He looked over at the brunette. "What's wrong with you?"

"I'm cold you idiot. How come you're not?"

"I grew up in Russia, this cold is nothing compared to the weather there."

"I lived in Russia for years as well and I'm freezing my ass off." Nadia turned her attention to the doors and blinked. She slowly put her arm up and pointed in the direction of the door. "You don't need to worry about calling them anymore." Kai looked in the direction indicated and raised his eyebrows as the other two teens made their way towards them. "How come Hadley isn't all wet? Didn't Tala try to extract any revenge?"

"Apparently not."

"What are you two doing here?" Nadia asked Tala when they had made their way over to them.

"We saw the security guards leading you out so we followed but we got stuck in a big crowd." Tala saw his little sister shivering and handed his jacket to her. She beamed at him.

"Did anybody get any work done?" the blonde asked. Everyone shook their heads no. It turned out that the woman the boys tried to interview was happily married.

"How do you think mum and dad will react when they see our uniforms?" Tala asked his sister.

"Maybe they will think these two are bad influences on us." She shrugged.

"That's the pot calling the kettle black."

"Anyway can we go home? I want to change into some dry clothes."

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The End…of this chapter

It's late because I have exams. Important exams. The exams that determine whether you make it into university.

Anyway I hope you like the chapter.

Please review


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